Monday, June 13, 2011
FARGO – West Fargo resident Fowzia Adde spent her teenage years camping, but for her and the 3,500 others she lived with, it wasn’t by choice.
Fowzia Adde founded the Immigrant Development Center in Moorhead, which focuses on economic development among the refugee and immigrant community. Chris Franz / The Forum
The conditions were crude, uncomfortable and apt to spread infectious diseases – but it was one of their only options, and it at least meant safety.
Adde was born in Somalia, where she remembers “going to school and enjoying myself in my country, just exploring and playing – until everything came apart.”
In the late 1980s, civil war erupted among rivaling ethnic groups in Somalia.
The widely publicized conflict drew humanitarian aid from the United Nations and countries like America – however, Somalia still doesn’t have a stable government.
At 12 years old, Adde fled to Kenya with her family, where they spent the next seven years in a refugee camp.
Unlike Somalia’s dry climate, Kenya offered rain and moist farmland that attracted mosquitoes – and with them came malaria.
The disease struck the oldest of the refugee population the hardest, Adde remembered.
“Just one after another. Every day we used to have burials going on,” she said. “Malaria was our first enemy.”
After a year or so, Adde said their immune systems seemed to adapt to fight off the disease.
In 1997, U.N. officials applied for Adde and her family to get asylum to another country, and Adde came to the United States first, with her mother and father following shortly after.
After living in Washington, D.C., for about six months, Adde decided to move to Fargo – where she said several others from her refugee camp had found a permanent home.
Here, Adde is now raising her own family, while promoting the well-being of other new Americans like she once was.
Adde founded the Immigrant Development Center in Moorhead, which promotes economic development among the refugee community.
“We work with them on how to understand the system and overcome the language barrier,” she said. “They have a talent that they come with, and they have their own way of doing things, and the only thing that’s holding them back is the language.”
After living in Fargo-Moorhead for 14 years, Adde said she can easily see how much more diverse the metro area has become as more refugees and immigrants move to the area.
North Dakota accepts about 200 refugees each year, according to Lutheran Social Services’ New American Services.
“They bring culture, they bring beauty – and they bring challenge at the same time,” Adde said. “It’s a give and take.”
Such challenges include the harsh reality that racism and prejudice still very much exist in today’s society and in Fargo-Moorhead itself.
Adde said she experienced it most prominently after she moved with her children to a home in south West Fargo.
“That’s when I started learning how people can easily judge people,” she said. “They judge you right away, thinking you are on welfare.”
“I can see the judgment right on their face,” she added. “You can see it: They just have a very short, closed mind.”
Adde said thankfully that sort of discrimination isn’t rampant.
“There are open-minded people, too,” she said. “Sometimes, you just need to take your time and understand. You don’t have to judge. … It’s a learning opportunity.”
Readers can reach Forum reporter Kristen Daum at (701) 241-5541
About this series
“Cultures in Conflict” is a six-part series publishing in The Forum and on Inforum.com.
During the first five days of the series, we’ll introduce you to local individuals who were born in countries around the globe that face social unrest, political change or cultural conflict.
They come from Syria, Kurdistan Iraq, Burundi, Nepal and Somalia.
Each shared with The Forum their unique tale of their homeland and their transition to America and Fargo-Moorhead.
While their experiences are distinct, some similarities weave their stories together.
We invited each of these individuals to participate in a roundtable discussion about international and cultural issues, as a way to shed light on topics we don’t often discuss here in the upper Great Plains.
That conversation will be chronicled for the sixth, and final, installment of this series.
Read the stories each day in The Forum, and check out Inforum.com for extra content, including videos of each interview and an interactive map.
- Thursday: Hassan and Mayla Ghazi of Syria.
- Friday: Newzad Brifki of Kurdistan Iraq.
- Saturday: Laetitia Mizero of Burundi.
- Sunday: Prashanta Bahadur Singh of Nepal.
- Today: Fowzia Adde of Somalia.
- Tuesday: Roundtable discussion about “Cultures in Conflict.”
Source: INFORUM